KELOWNA, B.C. – Speaking two days before the start of free agency, Carey Price wasn’t about to take back what he said more than two months earlier.

The Canadiens’ starting goalie and franchise player has not budged off his stated feelings at the end of the regular season in April that his window to win as a player is closing and if any unrestricted free agent wants to know how badly the Canadiens want to win, that should be enough of a message.

Price will turn 32 on Aug. 16. Captain Shea Weber will turn 34 two days earlier. They are not stupid. They know where they are in their respective career arcs, how important they are to the success of the Canadiens and how they are each more fixated than ever before on the big, silver trophy that does not yet have their names on it.

The Canadiens are looking to build through youth, loading up on prospects over the past 12 months to drastically rejuvenate their pipeline of talent. But that pipeline does nothing...